Juneau Assembly woman wants food tax relief
Published Thursday, August 28, 2008
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Stumble It!JUNEAU -- A Juneau Assembly member is pushing to eliminate sales taxes from residents' grocery bills.
Sara Chambers said she wants to stem the flow of money into city coffers, citing the Assembly's decision this week to spend half a million dollars in sales tax reserves on a bronze whale sculpture.
"If we can afford to pay $500,000 for a piece of art, we don't need to tax people on milk and broccoli," she said.
Chambers was among three Assembly members who voted Monday against the sculpture expenditure, which has sparked public criticism.
"Clearly we have more money than we know what to do with," Chambers said. "We should just let the people decide what to do with it themselves."
Assembly member Randy Wanamaker said he plans to ask the Assembly to reconsider its decision.
Chambers said she plans to seek formation of a task force to explore removing sales taxes from food bought in the city. The idea also was brought up during the election campaign in 2006, she said.
The issue of government spending, however, is more pressing now with soaring prices for food and gas and a slowing economy, she said.
"The whole whale sculpture deal has shown me that maybe we need to take some more meaningful action to help more people in Juneau," Chambers said.
A motion to create a task force would have to pass by a majority vote. Such a panel would look into what kinds of food would be exempt, how merchants would ring up sales and how it would financially affect the city.
Sales taxes provide about 45 percent of the city's $90 million annual budget.
Community Discussion
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BRAVO! A woman of integrity.
I have mixed emotions about all of these suspended taxes on food and energy. It's nice to save a little money now, but the government still needs the same amount of money to function and provide services. They are either going to borrow the money to cover it, or increase the mil rate and hit property owners for the shortfall.
There are enough non-essential items that can, and ARE taxed; items essential to life should not be taxed.
Are you kidding me? We're talking about spending money on a statue of a whale. That's an essential function of government?
Sounds like at least three of the assembly members down there got it right. I wonder if we could talk them into moving to the North Star borough?
Reminds me of the time I spent in Montana in the early '80's. The state coffers were so full, the legislature suspended the collection of sales and income taxes. The country needs more statesman like this.
I laughed when I heard this on the radio. Whos idea is it to spend the money on a statue? Shouldnt that be bought with donations? haha
This is a whale of a deal! Juneau can afford a statue of a whale with the taxes collected on groceries. At least they have a few common sense folks in their assembly. The state has a huge surplus, and we may end up with a golden calf in every city unless we demand accountability down to the penny and limit additional spending to ensure we are prepared for the future. That means buying futures and stockpiles of fuel, concrete, asphalt, lumber, and steel so we pay today's prices for tomorrow's products to save on future big construction projects. Sitting on a big surplus will only cost us in the long run, but using it to our advantage will actually increase it's value over time.
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